At the beginning of the month, Mookie Betts was trying to work his way out of a rut at the plate, but he was thinking himself further into it.
He was 6 for 33 in his first eight games in May, and looking at all the .300 batting averages up and down the Red Sox lineup only reminded him how much he was scuffling.
While he was sorting through things, Betts decided to pick David Ortiz’s brain. Outside of Jackie Bradley Jr., no one in the Red Sox clubhouse was tearing the cover off the ball like Ortiz, and at 40 years old, he was making hitting look too easy.
Ortiz gave Betts some simple advice: Get out of your own head.
“For him, it’s just going up and hitting,’’ Betts said. “He doesn’t think a lot. The less thoughts the better, and he doesn’t have very many thoughts when he goes to the plate.
“I’m trying to just kind of do that because it seems to work. Just think less and hit more.’’
Once Betts cleared the mental clutter, things started to click. In his last 12 games, Betts is hitting .364 with five doubles, a triple, five homers, and 15 RBIs.
For Ortiz, one of the pluses of his farewell season is being able to pass along some of his knowledge to a clubhouse full of young talent.
“I’ve been through everything as a hitter,’’ Ortiz said. “So I know he’s a good hitter. I know he’s got good hands, so the thinking sometimes gets you off of the focus. So it’s advice. We’re always talking, we’re always going out there with a game plan, everybody, and that’s part of it.’’
The younger players have a walking encyclopedia in the clubhouse, and, in turn, their energy has fed Ortiz, who’s hitting .329 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs.
“I think the sign of a good teammate is to pass the baton, so to speak, with the knowledge that he received from older players when David was in the first couple years of his career,’’ said manager John Farrell.
“He’s doing that right now. It may have even more importance here in Boston because of some of the other things that we deal with. David’s been a great teammate to many young players and that conversation is ongoing today.’’
Swihart all right in left
The transition from being behind the plate to playing the trickiest left field in baseball could’ve been a bumpy one for Blake Swihart, but he has looked comfortable in his first three games.
He barehanded balls off the Green Monster, chased down balls in the corner, and made the routine plays.
“He’s actually picking it up really, really quick,’’ Betts said. “It just shows you how athletic and how quick he’s going to get it.’’
The Monster has made plenty of outfielders look bad, but when Cleveland’s Jason Kipnis launched a liner off the Wall in the first inning of Sunday’s Sox win, Swihart played it perfectly, snagging it with his bare hand and firing to second to hold Kipnis to a single. The play helped Sox starter Rick Porcello keep the Indians off the board, and watching the work Swihart has put in, Porcello wasn’t surprised at all.
“I felt like the past couple days, and even seeing him just working out there pregame, he’s handling it very well,’’ Porcello said. “This has got to be the hardest left field to play in the league.
“He’s extremely athletic and he knows what happens out there and the way the ball bounces and he made a great play on that ball. Really, it looks like he’s been playing out there for a while. He’s come into it very nicely.’’
They’re homed in
How good have the Sox been at Fenway? They’ve won 10 of their last 12 home games, they’ve had at least 10 hits in 14 of the last 16, and they’ve scored at least five runs in 10 of the last 11. Overall, they’re 16-9 at Fenway, and the only team in the majors with more home wins is the Orioles. “One of the great things is that we’ve been able to turn Fenway back into our home-field advantage with the way we play here and the way we score runs at home,’’ Farrell said . . . David Price will make his 10th start of the season Tuesday, but it’ll be just the third time he’s faced the Rockies. In two career starts against Colorado, he’s 0-2 with a 5.93 ERA.
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.
